Serenity (2005)

Usually, when a TV show is made into a movie, the movie version is pretty bad. There have been several recent examples of this trend such as Sgt. Bilko & McHale’s Navy. One recent theatrical movie that bucked this longstanding Hollywood tendency is the 2005 flick Serenity that is the movie version of the short lived science fiction TV series Firefly.

Firefly was hands down the single best TV show of this decade/century thus far. Firefly displayed great humor, well written dialog and there was excellent chemistry among the crew. The scenes around the dinner table were truly wonderful. Firefly was conceived as a “space western.” It invoked the concept of space as the final frontier as well as the original “Star Trek” and Firefly was far superior to any of the latter Star Trek series. Firefly was a great science fiction show full of that sense of wonder for which that you read/watch SF in the first place. Hopefully, the rumors of a new season of Firefly being produced for distribution on DVD turn out to be true.

Unlike most other movies based on TV shows, Serenity keeps practically the entire TV cast in the movie. As a result, there is nary a big time movie star in the entire flick. This helps give Serenity the feeling of a breath of fresh air instead of being more of the same old same old.

The movie’s name derives from the name of the ship Serenity. The crew of the Serenity is strictly mercenary and will take on any job regardless of its legality or morality. This includes assassinations, burglary and smuggling. The galaxy is ruled by The Alliance that achieved its position by winning a galactic war. Complicating matters is the fact that the captain of the Serenity, Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), was on the losing side in that war.

As a result of this defeat, both Captain Reynolds and the Serenity spend most of their existence hovering on the far frontier hoping to stay out of the clutches of the victorious Alliance for as long as possible. This helps give Serenity a “space western” feel. To a great extent, Serenity is a futuristic version of the Wild West of yore.

If anything, life on the space frontier is even more perilous than it was on the Western frontier. This is because of the Reavers who are humans who have been gone crazy and have become cannibals. The movie starts with the crew of the Serenity pulling a bank heist only to wind up in the path of a marauding band of Reavers. Additionally, the crew of the Serenity are protecting a girl who they rescued from a sinister laboratory run by the glactic government. Needless to say, Serenity packs a lot of action in one film.
Serenity is a fun flick and as such is very well done. The fact that there are hardly any movie stars in the film adds to the fun and does not result in a production with acting values that are lower than most motion pictures. Unlike most science fiction movies, Serenity combines both good special effects with both a strong story and character development. Serenity is a great example of how science fiction films should be made and as such is warmly recommended.